The invention relates to communications systems and particularly to charging in them.
Prior art mobile communication systems, such as the GSM system (Global System for Mobile Communication), generally employ a charging system in which the calling party normally pays for the calls made. As the amount of traffic increases in mobile communication networks, subscribers hope for a more flexible charging system and the opportunity of influencing the billing. In a prior art solution for fixed telephone networks the called party pays for a call made, which is called a collect call. Collect calls are implemented as follows: the calling party makes a call to the operator's exchange and asks the person on duty to call to the called party to ensure that this party is willing to pay for the call. A call is not connected between the calling party and the called party until the operator has received acceptance from the called party. Then the called party is defined as the party to be charged.
The problem related to the arrangement described above is that the manual method is slow and requires personnel.